Field still entitled to claim travel perks

As an ex-MP, Taito Philip Field is entitled to hefty travel allowances. Photo / Dean Purcell

Former MP Taito Phillip Field is still entitled to travel perks despite being convicted of bribery and corruption.

The parliamentary rules on entitlements do not cover the issue of MPs with convictions.

That means the former Labour member for Mangere, who served more than five terms, is entitled to hefty travel allowances for ex-MPs. So is his wife, Maxine.

They can claim for up to 12 free domestic return trips a year and a 90 per cent discount on international travel as long as it does not exceed the cost of a return business-class flight to London on Air New Zealand - about $10,000.

On the basis of a $600 return airfare to Samoa, that would amount to 18 flights a year at $60 each.

On Tuesday, Field was found guilty of 11 bribery and corruption charges and obstruction of justice charges. He is due to be sentenced on October 6.

Prime Minister John Key said in Cairns last night that "at a moral level" the entitlements for Field or his wife were inappropriate.

Parliament's Speaker, Lockwood Smith, says he is willing to review the parliamentary perks rules. He acknowledged last night that there is no reference to the coverage of former MPs who are convicted of criminal offences and that under the existing arrangements the entitlements would apply.

But he said: "Given the seriousness of this matter, I am willing to explore how provision could be made to address the situation."

Former MPs can claim the perks only if they were elected before 1999. Field was elected in 1993.

The Field case was described yesterday as a wake-up call for the Samoan community.

Keneti Muaiava, lecturer in Samoan culture and dance at the University of Auckland, said customary practices such as lafo (customary gifts) needed to be looked at carefully and in context.

"A lot of matai [chiefs] come here and run things in the fa'asamoa way. But we need to acknowledge the land that we're standing on first," he said.

"A lot of them don't realise that. Those customs are okay in Samoa, but this is a whole different country, [meaning] different laws and rules."

Mr Muaiava also said that "Taito" - one of the highest chiefly titles in Field's home village of Manase - could be removed only by those who bestowed it.

"In the Samoan community, being looked down at like that, he's already in jail," he said.

"He went out and showed his faith every day," Mr Muaiava said. "He represented us - good on him. But he needs to be made accountable."